1. Technical Field
This invention relates to power cutters as employed in printers, plotters, and the like for cutting strip media and, more particularly, to a cutter assembly for linerless strip media having an uncovered adhesive backing comprising a cutter having a cutter blade mounted to cut the media transversely, and a backing bar including a plurality of longitudinal resiliently flexible fingers that form a cylindrical supporting surface for the media, wherein the media is supported by a pair of adjacent fingers and the cutting blade pierces the media between the pair of fingers.
2. Background Art
Power cutters are used in a variety of roll-fed media devices including, plotters, printers, facsimile machines, and the like. A typical prior art approach is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The rotary cutting blade wheel 10 moves along the cutting edge 12 of the backing bar 14 creating a scissors-like cutting action to cut the media 16 as depicted in FIG. 3. A cutting bar is sometimes used instead of the wheel 10 in a guillotine type cutting action or against a surface in an anvil type of cutting action. All these prior art approaches work well for their intended purpose with a hard-surfaced media such as facsimile paper, plotting paper, printing paper, or the like. They can even work without undue problems when the media has a liner-covered adhesive backing if properly designed and maintained.
For various reasons not important to the invention, so-called linerless adhesively attachable media is presently being employed in many applications such as labels, and the like, provided in roll form that must be cut to length at time of use. By coating the non-adhesive carrying surface of the media with a release coating, the linerless media can be rolled and unrolled without sticking together. Thus, the separate liner material previously used to cover the adhesive during storage and rolling prior to use can be eliminated. The negative aspect of rolled linerless media comes when prior art cutting mechanisms are employed in the roll-fed printers using the media to create labels and the like. As depicted in FIG. 4, the adhesive 18 soon builds up on the rotary cutting blade wheel 10 as well as the cutting edge 12 and opposite top edge of the backing bar 14 thereby gumming up the feed mechanism and preventing the media 16 from moving through the printer in a normal manner. The adhesive 18 can also cause the cutting action of the cutting apparatus to deteriorate rapidly.
Wherefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide methods and apparatus for cutting roll-supplied linerless media which will not allow the adhesive to gum up the device's feed mechanism.
It is another object of the present invention to provide methods and apparatus for cutting roll-supplied linerless media which will not allow the adhesive to cause the cutting action of the cutting apparatus to deteriorate rapidly.
Other objects and benefits of this invention will become apparent from the description which follows hereinafter when read in conjunction with the drawing figures which accompany it.